Sunday, October 19, 2014

A reputed, lower-level mobster is in jail as part of an ongoing
investigation into alleged organized crime activity targeting retailers
in Naperville and nearby communities.

Naperville police on
Thursday would not comment on their involvement in the case, in which
thousands of dollars worth of merchandise was allegedly stolen last year
from at least nine area retail shops.

One of the suspects,
convicted syndicated gambling operator Anthony Giannone, remained
Thursday in DuPage County Jail on $250,000 bail. He was arrested Monday
in northwest suburban Rosemont.

Giannone, 51, lives on the 2500
block of Sagamore Circle in Aurora. He faces trial on a felony charge of
theft of stolen property worth more than $500 but less than $10,000,
according to records on file in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton.

A
$250,000 warrant has been issued for the arrest of Giannone’s alleged
accomplice, convicted burglar Vincent T. Forliano, 44, who reportedly
last lived in Bloomingdale. Court records indicated he is to be tried on
the same charge.

An assistant DuPage County state’s attorney on
Monday filed a motion in the case. It read in part that charges were
brought against Giannone and Forliano “as a result of a Naperville
Police Department investigation into the activities of organized crime
operating in the city of Naperville and other Chicago suburbs.”

Judge
Robert G. Kleeman “reviewed and signed search warrants, for the search
of the defendants’ (homes) and vehicles,” the motion continued. Evidence
that Forliano and Giannone “are engaged in an ongoing, criminal
enterprise was seized” during those searches, the motion declared.

Authorities
contend the men “derive a substantial portion, if not all, of their
income from the sale of stolen merchandise and other illegal
activities,” according to the motion. “Despite the defendants’ claims to
have legitimate employment, neither was observed working during the
10-month Naperville police investigation.”

A formal complaint
filed by a Naperville police detective said Giannone and Forliano on
Dec. 3 “knowingly obtained control over certain stolen property of
numerous retail establishments.”

Several
of those corporations have locations in or near downtown Naperville,
although the detective’s narrative did not provide the addresses of the
allegedly victimized stores.

Sgt. Bill Davis, the Naperville police public information officer, declined to comment on the matter.

“This
case is an ongoing, active investigation, and no information can be
released on it at this time,” Davis wrote Thursday in an email.

Giannone
has been described in court documents as being an alleged,
mob-connected bookmaker. Undercover FBI agents in 2001 placed wagers as
part of their probe into an illegal gambling enterprise they believed
Giannone was running.

Surreptitious tape-recordings made earlier
that year by the FBI had Giannone plotting to kill a government
informer. The witness “has got to go, because (he is) causing a really,
really big problem now,” Giannone said on tape, according to federal
files.

Giannone also threatened a client who had run up a
gambling debt of more than $50,000. He implied he would beat the man
badly, saying, “When I find you, every day it rains, you’re going to
remember me.”

DuPage County court records showed Giannone in
February 2003 was sentenced to two years in prison on a felony charge of
syndicated gambling. He also was sentenced to six months in DuPage
County Jail, for illegally having a pistol and a box of ammunition in
his vehicle during a February 2000 traffic stop in Hanover Park, records
indicated.

Forliano in early 1989 was charged with burglary and
possession of burglary tools in DuPage County, according to records. He
ultimately violated the terms of the probation he received in that case,
and was sentenced in March 2004 to three years in prison.

Giannone
reportedly is able to post his $25,000 bond, but prosecutors suspect he
earned the money through criminal activity. A prosecution-requested
“source of funds hearing” is set for Wednesday, after which Giannone
might or might not be freed on bond prior to his trial.